Personal Business Intelligence (PerBI) Viewing Data

The main PerBI views are Bar and Line graphs.

The contents of these graphs are selected from a drop down list of model columns that were in the data source and for advanced users values derived from those columns programmatically using a BASIC type language.

This BASIC type language we call ASL initially sounds quite daunting but is in fact very easy to use and once learnt gives the application its real power.

Many Business Intelligence solutions require that a Model has to be designed and then you can cut and dice this model in all sorts of wonderful ways.

If you decide that you want to see the data in a way that the Model didn't envisage then things can become difficult.

Most of the time a graphical view is the most appropriate.

You can also see the data that underlies the graph or the rows in the data source that are currently in use, this is particularly useful if you are using PerBI to plan a marketing campaign.

We can see here 4 graphs being displayed at one time and its already quite cluttered.

In this example we also see the overlaying of standard deviation and counts onto an average premium graph.

What is important to know is that the data that makes up the 4 graphs can use either all of the data or different subsets.

PerBI is intended for examining data not for presenting the results in a manner where style outweighs substance.

Despite this the charts can be customised for colour and image files can be used to replace the solid bar charts.